Osun is in depression —Oduoye

Mr Kayode Oduoye was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for Odo Otin/Boripe/Ifelodun Federal constituency. He speaks with OLUWOLE IGE on the anti-corruption fight of President Muhammadu Buhari, the crisis in the PDP and the 2018 governorship poll in Osun. Excerpts:

How would you rate the anti-corruption crusade of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government against the backdrop of the EFCC losing some of the corruption cases in court recently?

There are two issues you have raised. For the anti-corruption crusade, as far as I am concerned, you need to do what is right within the ambit of the law for you to get the right result. If we don’t have laws in this country, you can go about fighting corruption anyhow. Inasmuch as we have laws, those laws may seem as if they are strict or having great hurdles to cross. But, the reality of the matter is that because we are under a democratic dispensation, there must be respect for the rule of law, due process and compliance for the rule of law. For any government to fight corruption, it is not just picking people that you think have embezzled or who by one reason or the other were alleged to have laundered funds. That is not the type of corruption I am talking about. Corruption itself has eaten so deep into the fabrics of our system in both public and private sectors. Whatever any money government makes comes from the private sector, so you need to even fight corruption in the private sector.

Some people are of the view that the anti-corruption war is selective, what is your take?

That is the truth. The opinion by the general public is that the anti-corruption war of Buhari is one-sided; that is what we have seen. Until you pick or investigate the political bigwigs that have churned out billions to support Buhari to become president, people would not take the anti-corruption crusade serious. Where did those people get the billions to sponsor Buhari during the campaigns? Buhari once came out before the election that he had no money to buy form needed to contest the Presidency on the platform of APC. Where did he get money at the end? He should have been probed as well. If he didn’t have money to contest, why did he come out? If he (Buhari) says change starts from him, let him also start corruption probe from himself. Those are parts of the things we are talking about. Secondly, if he says it is one side or party that he is probing because they have been in government for the past 16 years, what about other states that have one particular party in government for more than 10 years? Look at Lagos State for instance, which has been ruled by one particular political structure since 1999 till date. What has happened so far? Are you saying if you look into the books, you will find nothing? There are a lot of petitions in public domains, but they have been swept under the carpet.

The 2018 governorship election in Osun State is fast approaching and there are speculations that you are interested in the governorship seat?

Yes. I am contesting. I have indicated my interest to contest for the governorship election come 2018 in Osun State by the grace of God. I am committed to that.

If you eventually emerge as the governor of the state in 2018, what do you intend to do differently from what is being done now?

A whole lot; but I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag now. I don’t agree with so many things that are being done now. If you say Nigeria is in recession, then Osun is in depression. Osun’s economy is in depression. The reasons for that are that wrong decisions were made and wrong lines were toed. That is why you see that the APC, which is the party in government now, has been fragmented into about three or four factions despite being in government. Some would say they have a sole administrator running the state. As far as I am concerned, one of the good things we need to appreciate is that we have 2018 governorship poll coming up. Initially, we were looking at 2014, but the hope was dashed. Now, we have 2018 and I can assure you that by the grace of God, there would be a new lease of life in Osun State. We have what it takes.

Osun has no business being where we are now as a state. Osun has all it takes to be the food basket of the South-West. That alone is enough to sustain Osun as a state. There are some things we have here that other states don’t have and they are doing better. It’s about leadership, misplacement of priorities and wrong decisions being made. What do we have in the state that is thriving now? The economy of the state is in absolute comatose. For once in the history of the creation of this state, we have students from secondary school, protesting. It is an aberration. You have civil servants languishing in pains of having to live with half salaries for close to two years. That was never their wish. Even these half salaries were never constant. The full salary is not even enough to survive with under this depression Osun is undergoing. The reason we are here is that somebody took the decision to borrow loans and you have to repay. If the workers were consulted before these loans were taken that their salaries would be used to repay the loans, would they have agreed to that. No, they won’t. What I am trying to say is that we can be better and we would be better once I have the opportunity to lead the state in 2018.